Yay for Halloween!! Boo for missing out on 6th street fun, but Halloween has been interesting here in Japan. For my Halloween lesson plan, I taught them about Halloween (wearing costumes, trick or treating, bobbing for apples, CANDY, and haunted houses). For the haunted houses part, I took off running down the ailes with an imaginary knife in my hand, yelling at the top of my lungs. The kids were totally caught off guard and I definitely scared them. Mwaha! They loved it! And now I really am what one of my students calls me: Queen of Crazy! (haha) Then I taught them Halloween words and we played bingo with them. If they won, they had to say "Trick or Treat!" and they got a candy. They loved this too! Last, I read a scary story to them in English and had a brave student read it in Japanese so they would understand. I played Halloween sounds and music (Monster Mash, anyone?) the whole time. For my small class (12 students), I had a little more fun. I made banana bread and we had a little party. I also had them become mummies, but you can see that in the video! haha!! I had a blast today walking around and handing out candy and wearing bunny ears. Mom and Dad sent me a HUGE bag of candy and it was gone in two days!! (Thank yall! The kids couldn't get enough of it!!).

Now, technically, Japan doesn't "celebrate" Halloween, but the stores' decorations would make you think otherwise. That and I saw trick or treaters on television tonight. How would people know to have candy or not? Another ALT said that he got trick or treaters at his door! I dunno, Japan is random. haha =) But then again, so am I... I made a video because I know it's more fun to watch and listen than it is to read. HAPPY HALLOWEEN!! Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaand, begin!

Hello loyal blog readers! I apologize for my silence the past few days. I had a busy but very fun week: trying new restaurants and indulging in the great ones that I already know of, bowling with my co-workers, and taking crazy purikura. Such is the life in Japan :) But, for your viewing pleasure, I have made a movie out of the pictures and videos I took at Sasebo's Dance Festival, Yosakoi (which I went to yesterday). I hope you enjoy it and that it gives you a taste of how much fun festivals are here in Japan! Hooray for free entertainment!! And getting Hokkaido fishing songs stuck in your head! haha =)

Oh, but before that, here are a few pictures from yesterday that didn't fit in with the video. We got some "tex-mex" yesterday and it was rather good!

Me and "my" flag. haha. Hook 'em, baby!

My delicious beef burrito. I think they roll them like they roll sushi! Haha, but it was soooo good and it smelled so wonderful in their tiny restaurant!

Our lovely dinner...and this wasn't even all of it. There was a small salad, small noodle salad, a few pieces of fried chicken (small, not BIG), soup, and cake/coffee for dessert. ALL of this for 1,000 yen (a little less than 10 bucks). Amazing!

Yesterday Meg and I set out on a mission: to find the TAKENGEI Festival in Nagasaki. When I read about this in the Nagasaki Beat (a JET publication), the author said that it was the lesser known of the festivals (especially because it takes place one week after the well-known Kunchi festival: see pictures from that festival below) -- she wasn't kidding. We asked around and nobody seemed to know what we were talking about. Finally we went to the ticket sales booth in the Nagasaki train station and asked. At first, the lady didn't have a clue. Then she went in the back for about 2 or 3 minutes and came back with a map, the name of the shrine, and directions. She said that it would take about 15 minutes to walk to the shrine AFTER we rode the tram for about 10 minutes. Well, we had 15 minutes before it started and to be quite honest, we had no idea where we were going; so we decided to get a cab. Good thing we did, too...the guy took us up a mountain to get to the shrine...we would have NEVER made it. (Not only was the mountain steep, but it was also full of sharp turns...how would we have known which ones to go up?) I asked the cab driver if he knew anything about the festival and he said he didn't know anything about it! How odd! But, it was fun to speak in Japanese with him :)

So, we get there and what a show! I am so glad that we went! Oh, and I forgot to mention: Meg and I splurged and got a $40 meal at Milan (mmmm Indian food). It was SO good -- what a night! And here's a video for your viewing pleasure. Enjoy!!

Ok, so here are the videos from last week. I tried my best to get them into Windows format, but the quality wasn't that great (thanks for trying to help me, Thom!). There are 7 clips..about 5 minutes in total. It's inconvenient, I know. I'm sorry. Again, it's just us being silly (yet informative! lol). Tell us what you think!

Meg and I have completed the first half of our tour around Omura for your viewing enjoyment! We are having some technical difficulties with the second part of our movie, but that will hopefully be worked out soon. In the meantime, please enjoy our silly and informative movie and afterwords, please let us know what you think of it!! :) Thank you. (Click here if you would rather watch it on YouTube.)

Meghan and I had way too much fun with this, so we hope you enjoy it! Please leave comments for us!!!

The food in this video is a sweet, airy "log" with a sugary caramel taste -- I really don't know how to explain it any further than that. We were both shocked by it-- we were expecting something like a rice cracker taste. Yes, Jason, we DO have too much time on our hands...but at least we are being productive with it!!

I made this video so that you can see what my apartment is like in Japan. I had way too much fun with it and hope you enjoy watching it!! Tell me what you think and if you would like to see videos of anything else I might come across! :D